Gregory Smith is ten years old. He’s also a freshman - in college. While most students slog away for years in search of that elusive diploma, Smith could have his masters in hand before he can even drive a car. The blonde-haired, blue eyed boy is obviously a genius.

“I’ve always had a dream to go to college since I was about four years old. I remember seeing flyers about MIT and aerospace engineering. I dreamed about all those areas that I could explore,” he says.

Smith attends Randolph Macon College in Ashland, Virginia, a liberal arts institution with about 1,100 students. He doesn’t think that his tender age really makes a difference with the other 1,099 studious scholars. He says, “I believe college is not a place dependent upon age. It is a place where everyone can go to learn. Age is not an issue in college.”

Some students say age is an issue at college. Will Pluim, a third year physics student at Randolph Macon, says, “I think he’s a good kid and I’m glad he has the opportunity to [go to college].”

Not all students agree with Pluim though. He says there are those on campus who don’t like the thought of having a ten-year-old participate in their classes.

“There’s sort of a split. About half the people he comes into contact with accept him and like him. The other half think he shouldn’t be [in college] for whatever reasons,” says Pluim. “One of the most common reasons [students] have for not wanting him in college is the fear that [Smith] is stunting his growth as a kid.”

Smith, though, is not your average kid. In fact, his intelligence is off the charts. IQ tests are unable to measure it. When most babies are two and a half months old, parents are struggling to interpret different cries and screams — Smith was talking to his parents. He could read, perform addition and correct grammar by the time he was 18 months old.

Pluim thinks there may even be some advantages to being a ten-year-old freshman. “He has a lot of questions and he’s not afraid to ask. One advantage of being ten and not being what a normal college age is, is that college-age students are more inhibited about what questions they ask, and they worry about what people think of them.”

The signs of a world class mind peeked through very early in Smith’s life and though some people might think that he was pushed along by overbearing parents, that doesn’t seem to be the case.

Janet Smith, Gregory’s mother says, “My husband and I had great experiences throughout school, in high school, in junior high and in college. We met when we were in college, my husband played football. It was basically the stereotypical ideal school experience.”

Janet says it was tough when she and her husband realized Gregory was not going to have that experience. His incredible gifts meant he was going to have a different life, and much of it due to Gregory’s own wishes. “When he was only seven we stood back and let go. It’s emotionally grueling. He’s my baby, I mean that’s my child,” Janet says.

When they let go of Gregory he flourished academically, he started high school when he was eight and walked out with a diploma two years later. And even after graduation, it was still full steam ahead for the blonde whiz kid.

“We keep telling him, ‘you’re eight years ahead in school.’ He has time to slow down. But he’s adamant about doing it now, about capturing this moment. We just try to be supportive, loving and nurturing and not controlling,” explains Janet.

Gregory may be ambitious but he’s also a kid. He does what any other kid would do when it comes to games and sports, although he does go about these endeavors in his own way.

When he plays basketball he doesn’t play H-O-R-S-E, he plays G-R-E-G-A-R-I-O-U-S. And it’s just not enough to shoot around; Gregory constantly keeps track of his shooting percentages from all areas on the court. “Statistical analysis is how he makes it fun. I think he needs to be doing three or four things at any one time to make it interesting to him,” explains his mother.

But Gregory doesn’t just play basketball — after all he’s got an academic career to worry about. He says, “Well I want to get three Ph.D.’s. One in biomedical research, one in aerospace design and one in political science. With the Ph.D. in aerospace design I want to design space station so we can colonize other planets and mine asteroids. With the Ph.D. in biomedical research I want to find the cures for diseases like cystic fibrosis, AIDS and cancer. I want to learn about the regeneration of cells and learn to reverse the aging process.”

Gregory has another goal on that grand list, “I would like to become President of the United States.” He sees it as an avenue to achieving his true passion — world peace. In fact, he has set up his own organization called IEM (Inspiration, Education and Motivation) for non-violence. With this organization he hopes to educate everyone, but specifically children, so they can avoid the cycle of violence that has captured virtually all-previous generations. He says, “I believe it is through education that we will succeed in peace because education leads to understanding and understanding leads to alternative solutions.”

Smith is not completely alone in his brilliance, though his mental prowess is astonishing, other super-intelligent kids are springing up on campuses across the country. Some schools are even throwing the doors wide open for these ultra-bright teenyboppers by setting up special programs to attract them.

At Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, there are 67 geniuses from around the country that take part in the school’s Program for the Exceptionally Gifted. The program is only for gifted females, as the university is all-women.

Giannina Garces is a member of the PEG program. The 15-year-old is in her second year at Mary Baldwin College studying biochemistry.

Most girls her age would still be a year away from the junior prom, but Garces says she doesn’t regret her decision to skip the entire high school experience. “I think I would have had an equally good experience in high school. But I would not have had the same opportunities for a serious academic career. I wouldn’t have been able to apply for medical school when I was 18.”

Garces is intent on becoming an oncologist then traveling to Spain where she wants to set up a clinic.

Celeste Rhodes, the executive director of PEG at Mary Baldwin, says the 15-year-old program does more than just open up an academic world to participants. “Many students find a true peer group in the program. For some it’s the first time they’ve come across anyone who is like them. It’s a very meaningful experience,” she remarks.

According to Rhodes and Garces other students at the school are quite receptive to PEG members.

“One great thing about being on a college campus is people here are extremely open-minded,” says Garces. “I think it’s a lot less plausible that students would attach a stigma to someone just because they were in the PEG program.”

Rhodes says that sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference between PEG students and the general student body. Although Smith stands out physically as a ten-year-old boy at Randolph Macon, it’s not unusual for a 14-year-old girl at Mary Baldwin to pass for 18.

Though PEG students and Gregory Smith both go with the flow when it comes to the college experience, for all of them there are some concessions that need to be made. Campus security becomes a big concern when you’re dealing with students between the ages of ten and 15. Janet Smith says, “Security was a primary issue when we were looking at schools.”

PEG students are watched a little more closely at their school than the rest of the student population due to their age. Garces explains, “We have much tighter restrictions than the traditional students. We have a curfew of midnight on weekdays and one [a.m.] on weekends. You have to be in the building by 11 during the week and 12 on the weekends. Socially there are more restrictions. There’s more of an impediment to having males in the dorm. We’re not allowed to have them in our rooms — only in the common area.”

When it comes to college it’s apparent that geniuses have their own unique experience. It seems that with their tremendous gifts they might be enjoying the whole education ride a lot more than the average everyday collegian.

Smith certainly appreciates the value of learning and has attached his own peace movement to it. “I love reading Plato and Aristotle,” says the ten-year-old. “I’m very interested in philosophy and the greatness of scholastics. Education is one thing that is very important in my movement.”

A college career means big opportunities for students, but it also means big responsibilities. Just applying to a major college means a whole year of hard work and worries. Once students get past researching schools, gathering information and filling out applications, they have to contend with how to pay for it all.

“Oh yeah, plenty. It was very stressful. You get paranoid at times,” admits Larry Kociolek, a biology sophomore at Illinois Wesleyan University. “You’ve got to worry about a lot of factors, not only grades and test scores but also financial aid.”

Freshman Jamie Tindall says she felt that stress, too - and so did most of her friends. “Oh yeah, but that happens anywhere really. You want to get in,” says the Texas Christian University student. “This was my first choice — TCU. Obviously you are nervous waiting for the letter. And you always want to get a good SAT and ACT [score], so there is some pressure.”

“This student was changing transcripts for a fee. I have no idea what the kid was charging but for whatever [fee] he said, ‘I’ll raise your ACT score.’” JIM RUOTI, dean of admissions, Illinois Wesleyan University

Competition is tough, says Jim Ruoti, the dean of admissions at Illinois Wesleyan College. “There are so many more students trying to get into school now.” All that competition can make a borderline student desperate to get in - maybe desperate enough to bend some rules, or even lie.

New U.S. Department of Education rules set to take effect this summer could force some students to push that envelope. “If a student has a drug conviction, supposedly they can be disqualified for the Pell, work study and supplemental work study education grants,” says Ruoti.

Here’s how it will work: A student with one drug conviction loses federal aid for one year. A second conviction makes it two years, and a third strike means they’re out - they will never be able to get federal financial aid.

The question is - is there a way around those rules? Ruoti replies, “We ask students if they’ve ever been convicted of anything more than a traffic violation, but again if a student checks no, how are you gonna know? And with the right to privacy a high school counselor won’t tell you.”

Felony convictions aside, there are plenty of little white lies on those applications, too. “Sometimes a student is applying as a freshman who graduated let’s say a year ago or a year and a half ago,” says Ruoti. “You have on your application, ‘have you attended another university?’ and they put no. Then you find out they went to another school and flunked out.”

Kociolek knows that one. “Transfer students, if they haven’t done as well at their previous school they conveniently forgot to include the transcripts of classes they didn’t do too well in.” Some of those students had great high school transcripts so they try to fall back on that. But that doesn’t always work, especially when there’s foul play involved.

“At one high school in suburban Chicago a student was working out of the registrar’s office,” recalls Ruoti. “This student was changing transcripts for a fee. I have no idea what the kid was charging, but for whatever [fee] he said, ‘I’ll raise your ACT score.’ The kid was changing the composite scores, but not the four sub-scores, so they didn’t add up to 28. The high school had to go through every transcript and check. The interesting part of it was — had the kid thought of it to change the sub-scores — he might have been able to go on for a long time.”

In addition to transcripts being changed, Ruoti says, “I [also] remember seeing test scores that had been changed.” Kociolek has seen something similar among athletes.

“We ask students if they’ve ever been convicted of anything more than a traffic violation, but again if a student checks no, how are you gonna know?” JIM RUOTI, dean of admissions, Illinois Wesleyan University

“I especially knew excellent athletes in high school that wanted to get into any college and didn’t have the scores to get into even the lesser selective schools, and they had somebody take the ACT for them,” Kociolek remembers. “I know people who boosted their stats in sports and stuff, maybe increased their batting average by a few points. Coaches have been involved in that too, not just students.”

There are other ways students can bend the rules without breaking them, says Ruoti. One student took the ACT twice, and the first college she applied to let her combine her best verbal and math scores. On her own, she started putting that hybrid score on other applications - something most schools won’t allow. She eventually got caught, but insisted she didn’t know it was wrong.

Some students with physical or learning disabilities can take admissions tests without the tension of time - there’s no clock or time limit. “You’d be surprised how many students become a junior and get a disability,” says Ruoti. “And that’s a shame. There are people who know they can go to a doctor and say they have a visual or a dyslexic problem. As long as they have that slip from a physician, ACT has no option. I had one counselor tell me ‘I can name the doctor, and for $75 you can have that option.’”

It can also go the other way. Some parents have been known to pay a private psychologist to get their child into a gifted program at the beginning of high school, which in turn drives up their grade point average over the next four years.

Ruoti has been at this for 35 years and has pretty much seen it all. “I think there are probably more things now than there were then, just because of the pressure. …Students are under so much more pressure to get into school and get into the right school.”

Tindall from Texas Christian says the pressure on students won’t end once they’re registered and snuggled in their dorm room bed. “Once you get in, that kind of continues. It’s not exactly over when you get in — it goes on.”

When I got turned down for a job years ago, I asked the prospective boss why, and he said I needed more class (not the kind you get from society). He suggested that I take on some additional, alternative studies. This sent me and my bachelor’s degree back to school — a community college — for some new skills that helped me land my next job.

Supplemental education is just one of many roles community colleges play in the grand scheme of things — a supplement for many four-year graduates looking to gain additional knowledge and skills. This is also what makes them different from bigger state schools and most universities. But now an added amenity on campus could have these neighborhood colleges recruiting — and competing — with the big boys.

That secret weapon is housing. More and more community colleges are building dormitories on campus. Some are doing it as a recruiting tool, to lure a better grade of students while others are adding beds simply to serve their community and students better.

In some schools, dorms are something that has been needed for years, but the money simply hasn’t been there until now. That’s the dynamic at Central Wyoming College in Riverton, Wyoming. There isn’t another college within 100 miles so some students drive 90 minutes each way to attend class. That, plus enrollment is up 15 percent since 1996. Now, with more than 1,500 students, Central Wyoming has 135 on-campus beds. School leaders say the dorm is just one new way to better serve students.

It’s the same story at Fon du Lac Tribal and Community College in Cloquet, Minnesota. “It’s a small community college, it’s a tribal and state college, and some of the purposes were to raise the Native American enrollment, and to give options to residents across the state. It’s a union of cultures,” says Bruce Carlson, the Housing Director at Fon du Lac.

“Our main priority is just to give an opportunity to kids to get the education they wouldn’t have if the dorms weren’t here.” That idea appears to be working. “Fall semester was our first semester. Right now it’s above 50%, and we expect that to go up.”

Dixie Dorman, a 24-year-old sophomore studying Native American issues, is a resident administrator in the dorm who says on-campus housing helps students achieve better marks on their report cards. “I would say it’s had a factor in some grades. I mean, you’re right here and have all the things that you need, and so long as you’re willing, there are people to help you. It’s better than being 19 and moving out on your own, and there’s support groups for them.” Plus, Dorman says, living on campus saves her money over driving to school every day.

Carlson, Fon du Lac’s Housing Director, is proud of the school’s new dorms and says it’s serving as an example for other community colleges looking to add beds to their campuses.

“It’s a state of the art heating system, security system. I think they put about $1,800 in security in this building. We’ve had dorm directors come from other schools to look at this facility. We have 100 beds now, but when it’s done, it’ll have about 250 beds. It’s a 10 year project.”

That’s the dream for housing officials at Central Wyoming. They’d like to add another 72 bed dorm and charge residents about $2,000 a year in rent, but they need to dip into local neighbors’ pockets to pay for it. Taxpayers already shot down a three-and-a-half million-dollar bond issue to fund the project last spring. That raises two questions: Who pays for community college housing? And who profits from it?

Collin County Community College has a Spring Creek Campus in Plano, Texas, which is home to a brand new dorm that comes with a pool, satellite TV - even personal computer networking lines to hook up with campus computers. And although school officials didn’t have to pay a dime for it, they still own it.

Century Campus Housing Management, a Houston company that bought the land from the school, built the 296-bed dorm and now runs it. “The development company built it, we manage it, but it’s owned by Collin County Community College District Foundation,” says Jim Short, president of Century Campus.

“All we do is manage on-campus housing, mostly built by the development company. Four of the facilities that we manage were built by universities.” In each case, the colleges share in the profits. The Collin County Foundation’s cut could reach a quarter-of-a-million dollars in the 1999-2000 school year.

It’s just another manic school day, eight o’clock in the morning and time to endure another round of academic drudgery. Students know the drill. First it’s off to the all-too-familiar golf course to play a quick nine holes, then it’s back to campus for a training session with that damn baboon, then of course it’s time to set fire to something - anything, as long as it burns. And then to top off the day, well, it’s the depths of scholastic suffering — underwater archaeology.

This may not be a typical day in the life of most students, but for some it is.

Exotic Animal Training 101
At Moorpark Community College in Moorpark, California students are talking about lions and tigers and bears - at least when it comes to the school’s exotic animal training and management program.

The major actually offers more than just lions and tigers and bears, there’s also Asian elephants, alligators, baboons, marmosets and ostriches. Then there is the African serval, which Beverly Critcher, a graduate of the program and now an instructor, describes as “a cat that has spots and stripes, it’s very sleek and jumps about seven feet in the air to eat birds right out of the sky. It’s from the African savannah.”

“We don’t take the tiger out anymore, but we do have two mountain lion cubs that we walk.” BEVERLY CRITCHER, Moorpark Community College exotic animal management instructor

That African serval won’t be lonely at Moorpark despite the presences of a lone wolf here and there; the school has its very own animal house with more than 150 critters in all. And to some degree or another students get to work with each. Critcher says, “We don’t take the tiger out anymore, but we do have two mountain lion cubs that we walk.”

Critcher goes on to say that the course of study is a demanding one. Students spend their entire day from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. either working side-by-side with singing birds and babbling baboons, or learning about the creatures in the classroom.

Circus 101
At Florida State University, parents need not worry about their students running off to join the circus because there’s already a big-top bonanza right on campus. The Flying High Circus offers students the chance to do gymnastics, trapeze and high wire acts, as well as juggling - all netting students school credit.

Margie Peters, the associate director of the Flying High Circus, says, “We have our own big top tent, we spread sawdust, paint stages and sew our own costumes. It’s a real circus, we just don’t have any live animals.” Peters says students who get involved in the Florida State program, which is the only one like it in the collegiate world, seem to love it. “We’re going into our 53rd year. We haven’t lost a game yet, we’re still number one,” she jokes.

“[Students] have to have at least an eight handicap before they start the courses. Basically one of the pre-requisites is to be a good golfer.” ELAIINE WHITE, Mississippi State golf management school

Golf Management 101
If the thrill of dealing with wild animals and balancing atop the high wire is too much for some students, they may want to consider something a bit less stressful - like golf.

At Mississippi State University, aspiring swingers can major in professional golf management, a program that will have them dabbling in plant biology, food course management and golf management.

But with just 190 students making the cut to be a part of the program, it’s obvious this major is not for everyone. Duffers with wicked slices and awesome hooks might have a problem getting admitted to the program, says Elaine White, who works in the golf management school. “[Students] have to have at least an eight handicap before they start the courses. Basically one of the pre-requisites is to be a good golfer,” she says.

Fire 101
Those matriculating at the University of Maryland won’t be torching the links any time soon but they do get fired up about other academic disciplines - like fire protection engineering. It’s definitely a hot major, blazing a trail of its own as the only accredited program in the country.

“We get a lot of seniors who say, ‘I wish I did this my freshman year.’” MARGIE PETERS, associate director of the Flying High Circus at Florida State University

“We burn fabrics, burn different kinds of stuff. We basically burn everything and then we chart the results and look at what the fire response is,” says inferno-setting senior Nathan Vander Roest.

Vander Roest does admit some fellow students look at the major as a Beavis and Butthead paradise, but that’s not the case at all. The major is under the larger umbrella of engineering, a field that quickly weeds out the Beavis or Butthead types.

Underwater Archaeology 101
Students who can’t take the heat of fire protection engineering may want to cool off with some underwater archaeology. Scuba diving students at Brown University, Texas A & M and Florida State all have the opportunity to dive right into the discipline. Each school offers programs where students not only learn in the classroom, but also get up close and personal with hands on lessons down in the depths of the deep blue sea.

Whether majors leave you soaking wet or burning for knowledge, the wild and wacky side of academia is out there - you just have to look for it. Though not the first item in the schedule of courses, these classes can help break up a student’s tough coursework - and leave them with a lasting impression. Peters says, “We get a lot of seniors who say, ‘I wish I did this my freshman year.’”

If there’s one thing today’s college students know more about than their parents did, it’s how to get really wired. We’re not talking about caffeine or speed - that’s another story. Getting wired is about collegians being tuned in to the Net when they first arrive on campus.

Every major American college is already linked to the Web in one way or another, with many of them offering free online access, email and research tools to every student. But at least one school is taking that digital drive for knowledge farther than most.

Since 1991, Dartmouth College students have had to pack up their Mac or IBM and cart it off to campus along with their belongings. “We’re required to have a computer,” says Jen Taylor, a double major at Dartmouth. “The university has mostly Macs. Now they offer both a PC and a Mac package,” she adds.

“We’re required to have a computer. The university has mostly Macs. Now they offer both a PC and a Mac package.” JEN TAYLOR, Dartmouth College junior

Each new freshman’s orientation package from the school includes a pamphlet on the PC policy that spells out just what systems are required. Dartmouth will even help students get their hands on one.

“I did purchase one through the college,” recalls Taylor, who is now a junior. Her classmate did the same. “I got it through the school program,” says sophomore Julia Levy. “They send you a mailing and it lists a couple of computer programs. It had the iMac and the G3, and now it has a laptop and an IBM compatible PC. During the orientation week when only the freshmen are here, they give you your computer,” says Levy.

Buying direct through Dartmouth offers students two advantages. The computers come tech-tuned just right for life on campus, with hardware and software requirements already set to school specs. Plus, there’s a bit of a break on the price - iMacs are at least $50 off retail for students buying through the campus computer store. A similar discount applies to other computer systems, too.

The world may be running on Windows today, but nearly ten years ago when Dartmouth’s PC required program kicked in, Apple was the best choice for the job. “The Mac systems were much better tuned in to the campus,” says Taylor. “This year was the first year they stopped giving preference for the Macintosh,” shares Levy. “I’d say that most people still have them, a lot of people have iMacs, a lot of people have the G3.”

In fact, the Mac bias at Dartmouth really started 16 years ago. “Apple was selected in 1984, right when the 128 Mac came out. There’s a very strong precedent for a system that was easy to use,” explains Lawrence Levine, the school’s director of computing. “The choice for that turned out to be a Macintosh because the Macintosh had its point and click icon graphic user interface.”

For a short time Dartmouth didn’t just favor Macintosh computers over IBM compatibles - it required them. That’s ironic because there was talk at an Ivy League rival about just the opposite. The head of Yale’s information technology services was worried that Apple computers would not be able to meet the needs of students, because the company was not yet strong financially. That was a couple of years ago, and those worries have since gone away. The point is — it’s important for students to see which system their school is plugging before they plug in.

Unlike Dartmouth, Yale doesn’t make students pack a PC for school. “You don’t have to make it a requirement, they all [bring a computer] anyway,” says Tom Conway, from Yale’s public information office. That’s true on most college campuses, where students are finding a lot more uses for computers than cybersurfing and playing pong.

“No, we don’t require students to bring a PC,” says Juhee Kim, a sophomore studying math and biology at Boston University. But she has one. “I use it all the time, actually, especially with the Internet.”

Most students shouldn’t worry if they aren’t wired when they arrive at college. “There are various computers on campus, in the library and computer labs,” says Kim. “For computer science courses we have computer labs for lectures, and you actually have a computer in front of you.”

“I think students are definitely pushing faculty to use this technology, probably more so than they might have been.” MICHAEL BEAHAN, Dartmouth’s director of instructional services

Even the experts at Dartmouth admit most students are packing PCs, with or without a school policy. “In a way it’s almost a moot point, because there are a lot of schools where it’s not a requirement, but it’s very accessible. At this point in time I don’t think [a requirement] is really necessary,” says Levine, who believes that other than Dartmouth, technical and engineering schools are still the only places likely to insist students bring computers to campus.

Even if students don’t own a PC, they’ll have to learn their way around the information superhighway sooner or later. “I have used the computer and had the students using the computer for years and years,” says retired Professor Robert Huke, from Dartmouth. He first plugged his classes in, in the late ’70s. “I would judge that at least half of the courses on campus require at least some kind of computer work. I’m in the geography department, and here two-thirds of all the courses require some kind of assignments to be done on the computer. The same thing is true in environmental studies, Latin — almost any department.”

The electronic evolution has clearly driven the way people teach and learn at America’s institutions of higher learning. “It’s affected the way people work, the way they communicate,” admits Levine. And his colleagues agree.

“That’s certainly helped. The fact that we do have a policy that all incoming freshman have to have a computer,” says Michael Beahan. As Dartmouth’s director of instructional services, his office sets up computer presentations for classes using software like PowerPoint, which blends images and sound on a PC.

Beahan says although it’s students who are required to have and use a computer on campus, professors are finding themselves facing some requirements of their own. “What I hear from faculty is the first time they saw a PowerPoint presentation is when a student used it to present a project,” recalls Beahan. “I think students are definitely pushing faculty to use this technology, probably more so than they might have been.”

By Mindy GriserYou’ve had graduation day visualized in the back of your mind since freshman year and now you find it quickly approaching. Amidst the excitement and enthusiasm also comes a frenzy of emotions that borderline on hysteria. Don’t panic. You’re not alone — and you’re not going crazy.

Pre-graduation fright is not only completely normal, but almost a prerequisite to accepting that diploma and diving head first into the real world. According to Fran Katzanek, author of the newly published Reality 101: The Ultimate Guide to Life After College, academics have little to do with transition. “Not knowing what awaits you is the most traumatic,” says Katzanek. “Even though high school is different than college, it’s still an extension of a structured environment.” Katzanek, who served as director of career services at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island for 15 years, was inspired to write the book to help recent college graduates and almost-grads cope with the trauma of ending their college career. The idea came to her after she realized that graduating students - even those with the highest honors — are horrified when staring the future right in the face.

The book deals with many “real world” related issues, like finding a satisfying job, how to handle a landlord, signing a lease and how to juggle bills.

Ryan Dickey, a 1996 graduate of the University of California, Davis described his last semester as one of the toughest periods in his life. Finishing up with classes the December before graduation, Dickey took a corporate job, yet continued living with two of his college roommates until his graduation ceremony took place in June of 1997. Dickey says adjusting his sleep schedule with that of his roommates was problematic.

“They would have friends over and party almost every night,” says Dickey. I had to be in bed every night by 10:30 [p.m.] so I could get up early enough to function the next day. I eventually had to wear ear plugs to bed just so I could fall asleep among the noise.” For Dickey, this created a great deal of stress, which was aggravated by the pressure of starting a new career. Courtney Greve, a senior at the University of Illinois in Champagne, says most of her college buds are more concerned with avoiding what Dickey was going through — the trap of a conventional job.

By Kelly Kaufhold

Five years ago, 34 people emerged from the basement of the O’Hare Hilton in Chicago and let the sun shine in on a bright new idea. That was in 1996. The next year President Clinton weighed in on a fledgling fantasy with a promise of support for “Internet II,” the second generation of the tool that’s sweeping the world like a technological tornado. If you’re wondering what ever became of that digital dream — it’s alive and well, online on 150 U.S. college campuses.

“Oh God yes, oh God yes. It’s been lit fully for probably nine months,” says Christopher Peebles, one of the 34 founders of Internet II. “This will have great benefit for teaching and learning,” adds Peebles, who is the Assistant Vice President for Research at Indiana University. “The reason we did this is for applications, useful work, things like video, collaborative work of students in Indiana working with students in Singapore.” He says that means no marketing or surfing, all teaching and research on I-2.

There are a couple of key technological differences between I-2 and what Peebles calls “the commodity Internet” which is what the world is using now. First of all I-2 uses a much broader bandwidth, which means it has a ton more power to move and share information. Secondly, it’s routed through more than 30 regional hubs, called gigapops. “So if a school in Gary, Indiana wants to talk to a school in Elk Hart, Indiana it shouldn’t have to go through Chicago,” explains Peebles.

“We have a bunch of those gigapops all around the country, probably about 30 at the moment, large sophisticated presences.” They’re high-tech traffic cops for fiber optic lines and they allow schools to network with neighbors to share tons of data in a hurry. Member schools can still access information from all of their I-2 peers in the whole network. Things happen about one thousand times faster than a modem connection on the first Internet.

Here’s an application that’s already in use. Internet II gives people in five Midwestern and southern colleges the power to see full motion video images from a telescope in Arizona and steer it around the cosmos at the same time. Peebles envisions more. “Virtual laboratories running experiments in real-time,” even sharing medical resources like surgical training or x-ray images instantly.

Right about now you may be wondering where you can sign up… The truth is, most people can’t. I-2 is only currently available to institutions of higher learning, and organizers don’t see that changing any time soon. The whole idea is to take down roadblocks from the first Internet, like heavy traffic and slow interfaces, and speed things up for college researchers sharing information. The great news for students is that if they go to an I-2-connected school, they’ll probably get free access and all the benefits that come with the new network.

This means instant email, supercharged Web navigation, and things you just can’t get right now. “High resolution video used in distance education,” for example, says David Shealy, who heads up the Internet II program at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. UAB is also wired to I-2, and Shealy sees a lot of new uses coming down this high-performance pipeline. “Medicine is one discipline which is using I-2. However, there are many more… Music, art, drama, sciences.”

Here’s another illustration. “Students are actually using the Internet to learn about networking,” explains Greg Wood Director of the Internet II Project, a group of people from schools, government and corporate sponsors.

“There is a computer science networking instructor at the University of Wisconsin, which is an I-2 institution, that is collaborative teaching a course at a college in Japan on computer networking. The students in Wisconsin were able to hear an expert on networking who just happened to be in Japan and they weren’t constrained by being in Wisconsin,” says Wood.

Alabama’s Shealy points out another big benefit. “When students have access to leading edge technology as part of their educational experiences then I believe they will have more to offer employers after they leave the university.” Peebles expects I-2 to deliver new technology and tools to students again and again over the next couple of years. “The whole point is we don’t want them to notice anything but improvement. Students will see more tools, not just faster service.”

That’s great but what a drag for non-students and users who will be spoiled when they graduate. That’s where the corporate sponsors come in. Fifteen companies have ponied up at least a million dollars each in cash, equipment or services to be part of I-2. Peebles tells us Qwest Technologies alone donated half a billion dollars in hardware and support.

“They made a generous donation but it’s a two-way street,” says Wood, from the I-2 Project. “The corporate sponsors expect that what the universities are doing now, we’ll be doing in five years or so. They’ll be able to glimpse what the corporate world will look like down the road.”

Microsoft officers say they hope to bring things like high quality on demand video and CD quality sound to many more Internet users. That’s what drove the company to set up its own high-speed connection to the new college network. What they learn trickles over to Internet one, and over the next three years people online will see more speed and more services sprouting from I-2.

Uncle Sam has the same catbird seat, donating $350,000 grants to more than 100 schools. Government analysts expect to share the return on the investment by learning powerful new ways to share information.

There are limits to life online, even with I-2. “I’m not sure I want to put my heart surgery in the hands of a doctor in Toronto when I’m in Indianapolis” says Peebles. But Internet II has a pulse and it’s getting stronger every day

By Andrew J. Pulskamp

Maybe it all started with Candid Camera. It was innocent enough, real people caught in real life dealing with real practical jokes. It was, well… Real entertainment. Then MTV took the notion of real TV to another level with, ironically enough, the Real World. Instead of practical jokes taking center stage, Generation Xers lamented their tragic fates while living together in beachside mansions.

Now enter DudeDorm.com., the Internet’s latest invention in real entertainment. It’s an unadulterated look at the lives of six college-age men.

Mike*, a junior at the University of South Florida, has been living at the “dorm” for the past three months. “The main attraction is that there are six college guys of all types, from all different kinds of backgrounds, different cultures and sexual orientations all living together,” he explains. “Kind of like the Real World on the Net, except it’s 24 hours a day.”

The big difference between DudeDorm.com, Real World and Candid Camera is that the latter two enjoyed the luxury of being a taped broadcast. Video could be edited. Embarrassing moments could be conveniently blotted or blurred, or deleted altogether.

But there is no editing, blurring or anything else at DudeDorm.com. Mike says, “It is a voyeur site and is 18 or over for the simple fact that we are living our life any way any college person would live life. You’re going to see nudity. …We do a lot of naked things. We did naked twister once; cleaned the house naked once.”

The Web essentially shatters many of the conventional entertainment boundaries, taking a “real world” concept to new levels of shall we say… Candidness. Mike is an admitted exhibitionist but even he says there are a few things he would like to keep private.

The creator and owner of DudeDorm.com, Bruce Hamill, is also the creator of another popular Web site that is set in the college housing genre — VoyeurDorm.com, which preceded DudeDorm.com but employs the same basic concepts.

“Six girls live in a house with 55 cameras inside. You get to look at everything they do, brushing their teeth, getting dressed, dating boys, dating girls, taking a bath, everything a real girl does. The camera’s never off,” says Hamill.

If people want to see what’s going on inside either “dorm” they’ll have to become a member of either site. A month’s worth of DudeDorm.com is $24.95. To take a peek at the girls is a little more expensive, a one-month membership at VoyeurDorm.com goes for $34.

And lots of people are signing up and taking a peek. Hamill estimates that VoyeurDorm.com has about 61,000 members and DudeDorm.com, about 9,000.

One might be wondering why any college student would want to be the one being watched online. Surrendering every shred of privacy by posting one’s life on the Net is no small consideration — but there is compensation.

“Dorm” residents don’t pay rent or any related house bills, which means free room and board. They also get their tuition paid as well, and a monthly stipend. Mike is the house manager at DudeDorm.com and has some additional responsibilities compared to other residents, but says he gets about $2,000 a month.

Living in the house does bring with it some responsibilities for all house members. Residents are required to participate in online chats with members a few times a week. Chats may involve anything from friendly chatter and dorm gossip to requests for them to “get naked” (which they don’t have to do).

Despite the complete loss of privacy and certainty that thousands will glimpse one’s naked body, Hamill doesn’t have any problems finding willing tenants to live at either “dorm.” He says, “I probably get 100 to 125 girls and guys a week wanting to take part in the project.” Hamill tells his applicants they can “make money, have fun and be famous.”

The dorm cam phenomenon has not been met without controversy and criticism. Each dorm is a normal residence in a normal residential neighborhood. The otherwise standard house is simply outfitted with Web cams.

When neighbors living near DudeDorm.com found out what was going on inside the house, they weren’t happy. Mike says, “When we first moved in a neighbor invited me in for a drink and told me what day garbage day was and it was nice. …When it came out on the news where we were, what we were doing and what neighborhood we were in, that same neighbor started picketing.”

Other neighbors picketed as well saying what was going on in the house was corrupting the neighborhood and their children.

The girls of VoyeurDorm.com are fighting a neighborhood battle of their own. Local politicians have also joined in, saying they want VoyeurDorm.com kicked to the curb. They claim the house is a business and therefore violates certain zoning ordinances. VoyeurDorm.com says the house is a regular residence like any other and that any business that takes place regarding VoyeurDorm.com is done in its office building in downtown Tampa.

Though many people in the neighborhood are upset about DudeDorm, Mike says most people at his school think what he’s doing is just fine. He says many students even admire him and his roommates. “We get recognized all the time. We’re like local celebrities.” Mike also says that most professors he’s come into contact with on campus support the idea of what he’s doing.

There is also an anti-DudeDorm.com sentiment on the campus of USF as well. “There’s plenty of conservative young people that are very against it. They feel I’m degrading myself; exploiting my body for money,” says Mike.

Ashley Williams is a sophomore at Boston College, she couldn’t imagine having her life broadcast across the Web. She says, “I would never want to do that. It’s not exactly a moral, good thing to be doing.” Although Ashley feels strongly about the subject, she doesn’t want to get involved in policing other’s choices. “I would never tell other people that they couldn’t do it,” she says.

Carrie Robertson, a senior at Iowa State University, takes a similar stance, “I suppose if people want to watch and do that, then it’s up to the viewer and up to the one being viewed.”

“Real” entertainment is the idea behind both “dorms.” And while that scenario may seem exhilarating to some it doesn’t really sound very riveting to Robertson. She says, “I personally wouldn’t want to even watch. I mean everyday stuff is no big deal, I do everyday stuff myself — it’s not that exciting.”

*Name withheld to provide anonymity.

By Andrew J. Pulskamp

The fruits of knowledge are a hard won harvest. In the 13 years from kindergarten to college, the main occupation of a person’s life is learning. Students slog their way through high school finding out that the first life on earth consisted of tiny green specks and that one of the common characteristics of all organisms is that they can move on their own.

There were the lessons about Sir Isaac Newton going up to the top of the leaning tower of Pisa to drop a ten-pound weight and a one-pound weight. This was all to show that objects of different weights still fall at the same rate.

Well, if you don’t remember those lessons — don’t worry, because they’re all wrong, incorrect, nonsense� Whatever you want to call them. Although, the fact that those “facts” aren’t even true hasn’t stopped some schoolbook publishers from including them in their texts.

The unfortunate result is that when some students thought they were boning up for college, they were really filling their heads with garbage.

Kim Chamberlain isn’t that far removed from those high school days. The freshman microbiology major at Colorado State University says she remembers learning the lesson about Sir Isaac Newton as an account of factual history even though it’s just a myth. Newton never climbed the leaning tower of Pisa to drop those weights.

“It reminds you that you really have to research some things. You can’t take everything at face value, even if it’s coming from a book,” says Chamberlain.

According to members of the Text Book League, an organization that supports the creation and acceptance of sound textbooks, there are plenty of errors, misconceptions and pure poppycock that pop up in high school and even some college textbooks.

Lawrence Davis is a professor in the department of biochemistry at Kansas State University and he has also reviewed books for the Textbook League in their Textbook Letter. He says part of the reason for all the errors in these books has to do with copycat tactics used by some publishers.

“There are errors that are real conceptual errors. And some authors tend not to explore everything from scratch and they go to other books and use those same examples that are wrong. Once mistakes get in textbooks they’re very hard to get out,” remarks Davis.

A student can pay for these oversights in more than one way. Not only is their education perverted, but collegians can also lose out come test time.

Chamberlain has experienced this firsthand. She says, “There was a lab book that had a couple wrong statements about fungi. I can’t remember exactly what it was, I just remember they told us it was something we needed to know for the test and we didn’t find out until later that it was wrong.”

Chamberlain says she’s not sure if the professor will give students credit for the error even though they learned the erroneous material from the assigned text.

The references to tiny green specks as the first life on earth and the idea that all organisms can move on their own mentioned in the first paragraph came from Fearon’s Biology, published by Globe Fearon.

In 1997 the state of Texas adopted that book as a high school text. Of course the first life on earth was microscopic and there wasn’t anybody there with a microscope to make note of the color. And as far as all organisms being able to move on their own — guess the author never heard of a tree.

According to a review by the Text Book League, Fearon’s Biology also asserts that the nose controls the sense of smell (what about animals that don’t have noses — can’t they smell anything?) and the biology text also offers a lesson about a famous book about a biologist named Frankenstein.

Fearon’s Biology’s Frankenstein lesson states, “Frankenstein pieced together the parts of dead bodies. Finally he brought a creature to life. But Frankenstein’s creation was an eight-foot monster. Eventually the monster destroyed the biologist.”

It may be hard for some to imagine what Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein has to do with biology and it may bother others that Fearon’s doesn’t inform students that Frankenstein is a work of fiction.

Fearon’s Biology bothered William J. Benetta. As the editor of the Textbook Letter, Benetta characterized Fearon’s Biology in his review of the textbook as “a sorry, slapdash collection of hearsay, guesses and mystical drivel, all rendered in baby talk. …This book is patently unfit for use in a high school or anywhere else. And anyone familiar with science will quickly discard Fearon’s Biology as a fraud.”

Fearon’s is not alone in the world of textbook mistakes. Other tomes have their own serious textbook blunders.

A publication called Heath Physics, put out by the Heath Company, teaches students that when you walk, you push with your feet, but your feet do not push on you. This is untrue. Most physics majors in college know that if your feet didn’t push you, you wouldn’t go anywhere.

There is also some confusion in the book between the First Law of Thermodynamics and the Law of the Conservation of Energy. Now these are two distinct principles, but the book presents them as being interchangeable. Not exactly the lessons students want to be learning if they have their sights set on college.

According to the Textbook Letter, another one of Globe Fearon’s books called Fearon’s Global Studies, molds the future minds of America by telling them that Australia is a part of South and Southeast Asia, even though Australia is a completely separate continent.

The geography book also presents certain religious stories as if they were fact, including an account of Muhammad having a vision of the angel Gabriel.

Whether these textbooks are presenting flat out errors, or mythical stories presented as fact, many students have gone unaware that they were duped.

Carmen Hecht, a freshman art major at Kansas State University, is none too pleased to learn that some of her hard high school work may have been all for naught. If that was the case, she says, “That would definitely make me pretty upset.”

Retired physics and astronomy professor for the University of Denver, Mario Iona, wrote a column for nearly ten years about errors made in physics books. He says, “Some examples are so blatant and they shouldn’t be there. A respectable author and publisher — they should know better. �It’s pretty disappointing.”

There are plenty of disappointments. Take for example this passage from Fearon’s World Geography and Cultures. The book states the following about an Amazonian rain forest: “It is thick with trees, vines bushes, and other plants. You can’t even walk or even push your way through most of the rain forest.”

Unfortunately for Fearon, they’re wrong again. Most portions of a rain forest are fairly easy to walk through. The upper part of the forest, or canopy, often keeps sunlight from reaching plants at the jungle floor.

In World Geography Today, published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., another lesson goes awry. The book states, “The ancient heart of Russia is the upper Volga River basin. The Russian Orthodox Church fled here after [Kiev] fell to the Mongols in 1240.”

But according to a review by Paul F. Thomas, a professor of geography and education at the University of Victoria, in the Textbook Letter, that’s not the case. Thomas states that there was no Russia in 1240. If there was no Russia, there couldn’t have been a Russian Orthodox Church and in 1240, Kiev was the capital of Kievan Rus, which according to Thomas is a state that can’t be even “equated” with Russia.

So with all these examples of textbook blunders, should students be concerned about what they’re learning in college? Not really, according to Davis. He says most textbook errors are found in high school and middle school editions. “Generally speaking, at the more advanced levels in college publishing, errors are very small and very low.”

By Troy Peden

What’s your college or university best known for? Maybe it’s the number one party school in the country. Or it has a championship lacrosse team. Or it has the most grasshoppers per capita in the spring and summer. Whatever it may be - most schools are known for something.

Below is a list of colleges and universities that have carved a name for themselves by being a part of the novel, interesting and bizarre. Enjoy!

Easiest School for Admissions
Bellevue College � One of about 20 U.S. schools of higher ed. that admit 100 percent of applicants. (Slept through high school? There may be hope for you after all.)

No ACT or SAT
Huron University in South Dakota is one of many schools that do not require test scores for admission.

Most Applicants
UCLA received 32,792 applications for admission last year. (Just imagine the size of your Psych 101 class if you were a student here.)

Most Exclusive Schools
Juilliard School of Music accepts only 8% of their applicants. (Talk about picky�)

Largest Student Body
UT-Austin edges out Ohio State University, with 37,302 students enrolled.

Smallest Student Body
Thomas More College of Liberal Arts College in New Hampshire with a mere 61 students wins. (If you don’t know all your classmates here, you need to get checked out for social phobia.)

Most Out of State Students
More than half - 58 percent — of the University of Vermont’s student body hails from out-of-state.

Tallest Dormitory
Illinois State University is home to the mammoth Watterson Towers, 28 stories of co-eds. (It really sucks when the elevators break down.)

Best Mascot
Several awards are duly earned in this category, including: The Wonder Boys of Arkansas Tech University, the Hardrockers of South Dakota School of Mines, and the Fighting Squirrels of Bradford College (which is closing its doors for good at the end of the 2000 school year).

Most Men On Campus
Looking for a man? If you are lucky enough to be in the two percent, St. John’s University in Minnesota boasts a student body made up of 98 percent males.

Oldest School in the U.S.
Harvard was founded in 1636. (Hope they’ve updated the plumbing.)

Most Snow
Northern Michigan University received over ten feet of snow in 1999.

Hottest Campus
Florida Keys Community College had an average temperature of 77 degrees last year.

Most Alumni
Need some network connections after graduation? The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign claims over 460,000 alumni.

Lowest Faculty to Student Ratio
California Institute of Technology has a faculty to student ratio of 1:3. (Talk about personal attention.)

Most Students Studying Abroad
Kalamazoo College sends over 85 percent of its students to another country.

Coolest Study Abroad Program
Semester at Sea is the unequivocal winner for its unique international experience.

Coolest Internship
The Institute for Cultural Ecology offers whale-watching internships in Hawaii.

Most Interning
Alverno College in Wisconsin requires that every one of its students hold an internship.

Best Cheerleaders
University of Louisville was the National Grand Champion at Collegiate Cheerleader Championships.

*Some statistics compiled by � U.S. News & World Report Inc.